Waste Management Outlook for Mountain Regions

dependent on local people and visitors (Kuniyal, 2005a). Similar findings are reported in Nepal (Kuniyal, 2005b).

In more developed countries, mountain communities can also be disproportionally underdeveloped and struggle with waste management. In the Romanian Carpathians, for example, waste is often dumped on flood plains (Mihai et al., 2012). Armenia – a lower middle-income, mountainous country – has several communities that are geographically separated from the main urban areas, where the current approach to waste management involves simple ‘truck and dump technology’. There is an absence of both institutional capacity and technical parameters for SWM and a lack of general awareness of waste management issues within small and remote mountain communities (ADB, 2015). A common problem in the disposal of waste in mountainous regions is the difficulty in transporting waste from the point of generation to landfills, and sorting and recycling facilities (Chen, 2010). In hilly terrain, roads meander along circuitous routes to avoid steep gradients and impassable rock formations. This increases the distance that waste vehicles must typically travel to transport the waste to its destination. Furthermore, the differences in elevation mean that vehicles must use more fuel to cover a given distance (Asian Development Bank, 2013). Thus, the costs associated with waste collection and disposal in mountain regions can be significantly higher than in other areas. In Nepal, the vehicles and equipment available for waste collection and transport in each municipality varies widely and can include rickshaws and carts for primary collection, tractors for secondary collection or transport, and dump trucks for transport to the disposal sites (Asian Development Bank, 2013). In some of the most remote communities, there are simply no roads (Kuniyal, 2005b). In remote mountain areas, transportation may include the use of animals such as yaks, llamas, horses, donkeys and mules (Worboys et al., 2015). In contrast to urban areas, formal waste management sectors often do not exist in smaller towns and more remote settlements in the mountains. Generally, the volumes of waste generated in these regions are much smaller than in larger urban areas and tend to be dominated by organic waste. For instance, studies show that in Nepal up to 70 per cent of municipal solid waste consists of organic material (Pokhrel and Viraraghavan, 2005; Dangi et al., 2011). The quantities of non-organic recyclable waste generated in mountainous regions in the developing countries are too small to make recycling an economically viable enterprise.

Rubbish bin in Nepal. Photo © Björn Alfthan

recycling and disposal. Non-biodegradable waste in some communities in Himachal Pradesh (Indian Himalayas) is collected by waste pickers, who either sell it as raw material to recyclers or reuse the waste themselves (Kuniyal, 2005a). In other areas in the Himalayas, local governments advise the local population to burn their rubbish in household rubbish pits (Allison, 2008). The same study found that villagers dispose of items that they cannot burn or are too big for garbage pits (such as household appliances), by throwing them into ravines.

Rural mountain development projects and waste side-effects

Development projects often fail to address predictable changes in waste generation. For instance, the provision of electricity to mountain communities is often accompanied by an increase in waste that is often difficult to safely dispose of. While bringing important improvements – lighting without the need for indoor fires, for example – these projects also create a need to manage new kinds of waste such as small appliances and light bulbs. An electrification project in Bhutan, for example, provided electricity and lighting to highland communities. However, the light tubes did not come with instructions for disposal and there was no system of hazardous waste management in place. As a result, people were exposed to hazardous materials such as mercury (Allison, 2008).

In the absence of formal waste management systems, there are a variety of informal approaches to waste collection, sorting,

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